Psalms 86:6 Meaning and Explanation
“Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Asking God to listen can feel like an odd request to make of someone who already knows everything. Yet the psalms make it constantly, and this line makes it twice in a single breath. Watching how David words the request teaches us something about what prayer assumes, and about the kind of God who invites this sort of insistence.
David asks the LORD to listen closely, using two verbs for attentive hearing. His prayer and his repeated pleas for mercy are laid before a God he trusts to be genuinely attentive.
The Context of Psalms 86:6
Psalm 86 carries the heading A Prayer of David and stands out among the psalms of Book Three, most of which belong to Asaph and the sons of Korah. It opens in verse 1 with a plea for God to bow down his ear, and repeats appeals for mercy through verse 5, where David confesses that the Lord is good, ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy. Verse 6 renews the request for hearing on the strength of that confession, and verse 7 states the confidence behind it. Verse 14 finally names the trouble: proud men and violent assemblies seeking his life.
What Does Psalms 86:6 Mean?
Two imperatives carry the verse, and they are close cousins. Give ear pictures bending toward a sound, the posture of someone who leans in to catch a word. Attend adds the sense of paying sharp heed to what is said. David then names two things for God to hear: my prayer, and the voice of my supplications. That second phrase is worth pausing over. Supplications are pleas for undeserved favor, and here they have a voice, an audible pressing that verse 3 says has continued daily. David brings a sound worn smooth by repetition, and he asks the Lord to bend toward it.
Placement gives the request its logic. Verse 5 has just described the Lord as good, ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon him. Verse 6 immediately calls upon him. The prayer is shaped by the character it has confessed, which is how Israel learned to pray from the beginning. Moses appealed to the name God revealed at Sinai, and David quotes that revelation almost word for word in verse 15 of this same psalm. Requests for God to hear run through the whole Psalter, and they rest on a covenant God who has bound himself to a people and told them what he is like.
Hebrews 5:7 describes the days of Jesus in the flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to the one able to save him from death, and was heard. The writer chose the vocabulary of the psalms for that sentence. The Son asked to be heard in the same register David uses here, and the answer came. That gives a striking weight to a verse like this one. The pattern of pleading for a hearing was carried by Christ himself, and those who pray now do so through a mediator who knows the sound of supplication from the inside.
Psalms 86:6 in the Original Language
tachanun (תַּחֲנוּן), 'supplications' -- an earnest plea for favor, formed from the root meaning to show grace. The plural in this verse suggests repeated appeals rather than one polished petition, the cry of a person asking for kindness he cannot claim as a wage.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 86:6
“Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.”
- Psalm 86:1
“Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.”
- Psalm 55:1
“Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”
- Psalm 116:2
“O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.”
- Daniel 9:18
Where Psalms 86:6 Echoes in Scripture
Psalms 130:2 asks the Lord to hear a voice and let his ears be attentive to the voice of supplications, using nearly the same pairing found here. That psalm comes from the depths, out of a man waiting on forgiveness. Set beside Psalm 86, it shows how settled this language became in Israel's worship. The same request surfaces in different centuries and different troubles, which suggests a congregation that had learned to expect a hearing God and taught its children to ask accordingly.
How to Apply Psalms 86:6 Today
Prayers that ask God to listen give us permission to be plain. We can bring the same matter again tomorrow without apologizing for repeating ourselves, since supplications in the plural are exactly what this verse hands to God. It helps to say the request out loud, in words we would use with a friend, so that the voice David mentions becomes real in our own rooms. It also helps to pray the psalm's order: name what God is like first, then ask. Confidence in prayer grows out of who is listening, and that can be recalled before a single request is made.
Reflection & Prayer
What have I stopped asking for because the asking felt repetitive, and would I bring it back if I believed God leans in to hear? A prayer: O Lord, give ear to me. My words are worn and my voice is tired, and I have said this to you many times. Bend toward the sound anyway, and let me learn to ask like a person who is certain of being heard.